Any camera prices coming down?

[bloodhound31]

Hey all, anyone here have any inside goss on the Canon range? The 5D MK II has been out for a while now, the $AUD has been looking pretty steady and high too.

Currently on $0.89 against the $USD. Any financial people here care to speculate on what the current world economy is and will be having on camera prices in Australia?

I would prefer serious and thoughtful answers. IIS has been pretty good in this regard, don't let me down gang!

Baz.

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Going to hazard a guess here. But here goes.

If a camera doesn't sell a lot or has a few in stock, he has to hold his prices high, due to the exchange rate that he got, his price will not drop until he has to bite the bullet only to get rid of stock.
Or until the dollar goes in his favour.

If he moves/sells a lot of gear and has low stock, his prices will somewhat be more susceptible to the exchange rate pricing.
Which could be great for sales at the right time, if our dollar goes up.

It all depends on the seller, if he wants to loose part of the profit for a sale.
I would hazard a guess that there might be a 2-3 month price lag, due to shipments taking 2-3 months to arrive here (ship freight not air freight)

But with the dollar falling a few cents, I wouldn't expect huge savings, unless there is a glut of cameras and or the dollar goes up above 91-92 cents.
But if there is no sales for a while, these guys will have to bite the bullet to entice sales.

If I had the money while I was in the US, I would have bought a digital camera over there.
I think the prices here are way over my head.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

If you are asking for a exchange rate forecast it would appear that the $aud risk is on the downside in the medum term. I wouldnt be waiting for exchange rates to move any higher in our favour unless your time horizon is > 6 months.

Just be aware that a lot of highly paid professionals doing forecasts often get it completely wrong.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

Agree with Geoff re: the $AU. Although some of the banks are still forecasting near parity later in the year, most of the analysis I've read recently makes me think we'll see it drop in the short term at least.